How to Save a Life
by loveyourbiggestfan
Summary: Two-shot. Duncan bent before the first tombstone, still wondering how it had ended up this way. / Flashes of red drove past, before coming to a holt several metres ahead. The sirens stopped. Life as they knew it stopped. Slight D/C, Harold/Courtney. R&R.
1. 2010

**(The Fray - How to Save a Life)**

**Started out with a drabble written for the shuffle game over at the forums, then added in the first part and the lyrics before the end. It's a really amazing song. If you haven't heard it, I totally recommend looking it up. **

**Anyway, hope you guys like it. :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama Island, nor do I own the song.**

* * *

_2010_

He woke up, sprawled on his couch with his comforter pushed under the coffee table. The TV was still on, just like he'd left it the previous night. He paid no attention to the electricity bills even when he wasn't able to submit any of the payments on time. With his eyes half open, he slipped out of bed.

The coffee was stale, over a few days old, but he drank it anyway. He found an unfinished can of pork and beans on the top right shelf in the fridge, and took several bites before leaving it on the counter.

His walls were covered with photographs and old copies of the Toronto Star he often found lying on the streets. Sometimes he'd take out a pen and circle out the parts he thought wouldn't mean anything to him, then read over them the most.

Checking his watch-which read 2:30-he walked out of his apartment, the keys jingling in his right pocket. He walked to his car in jeans and a sweatshirt he hadn't washed in days, when the weather lady predicted heavy rain with a possibility of hail.

He wasn't one to follow the rules, anyway.

Yet for some uncanny reason he couldn't explain to anyone (himself included), he decided to become a police officer.

--

Duncan bent before the first tombstone, still wondering how it had ended up this way.

_Courtney Anne Evans, 1992-2009, 'sometimes you look right through a person and end up seeing them all wrong'_

It had rained for days. He ran over the puddles, drowning into his own misery, and got the flowers out of his truck. He made his way back, laying a few white roses before his lover's grave.

The second tombstone stood next to it. It haunted him even more. The night of the crash, he was asked to work a couple extra hours. He recieved a call from the police minutes after overtime, filling him in on what had happened, as per Courtney's last instructions. He quit his job moments after.

_Why? _It was the question in his head when he'd first heard the news, and the question that remained as the days went by.

He bent before it. _Harold W, 1992-2009, was killed trying to save a life_

The newspapers had came flooding in the next day, even when most of them weren't due 'til later that week. It was the story printed on every first page. Harold's quote, his last few words, was added somewhere in each article, _'I'm sorry, Courtney'_

Duncan listened for a moment, then placed a single daffodil next to his grave. The air tasted bitter, but he swore he heard their voices. Somewhere far, coming from a place he'd yet to see for himself, but still close to his heart.

_'I forgive you, Harold'_

'_I forgave you a long time ago'_

--

_Step one you say we need to talk  
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk  
He smiles politely back at you  
You stare politely right on through  
Some sort of window to your right  
As he goes left and you stay right  
Between the lines of fear and blame  
And you begin to wonder why you came_

_Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend  
Somewhere along in the bitterness  
And I would have stayed up with you all night  
Had I known how to save a life_

_Let him know that you know best  
Cause after all you do know best  
Try to slip past his defense  
Without granting innocence  
Lay down a list of what is wrong  
The things you've told him all along  
And pray to God he hears you_

_Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend  
Somewhere along in the bitterness  
And I would have stayed up with you all night  
Had I known how to save a life_

_

* * *

_

**Couldn't come up with a single surname I could use for Harold, so just left it with a random initial. **

**R&R :)**


	2. Wreck of the Day, Time

**For all of you who requested a flashback chapter. :)**

**I left quite a few details out in the middle, so you can interpret how it happened as you wish. **

**Short, like everything else I write. Hope you guys enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own TDI. Or that amazing song that drove to...writing this. :)**

* * *

"_Hey, this is Harold. I'm guessing you're probably not here right now, seeing as you haven't picked up your phone for the twenty-seventh time this week. Someone from your physics class gave me your number, in case you're wondering and probably freaking out about it. Listen, I know things between us haven't been exactly the greatest and-" A pause. "So anyways, call back when you get this-"_

She jabbed her thumb hard against the delete button.

--

_May 3__rd__, 2009. _

Courtney stared at her computer screen, hovering her mouse over the sections that needed fixing. Her power-point was coming along nicely, except for the fact it was due next period. And since her free period was almost over, well, the statement basically answered itself. She put aside the loose strand of hair covering her left eye, put everything else (including the things that mattered) on hold, then pressed 'play'.

One of the girls from her media class had given her the idea. It was simple, and done plenty before, but at that time she was running desperate. 'Leukemia' was typed in big bold betters that stretched across the width of the monitor. And the caption under it: 'Taking away the lives of the people who mean the most to us'

Okay, so she'd work on that. She came up with that while she brushed her teeth that morning, after all.

She quickly scanned the time located near the bottom of the screen, and bit her lower lip. She needed more _time._

--

_Lay down a list of what is wrong  
The things you've told him all along_

--

Hopefully it would be good enough. Courtney gathered her things, clicked the 'save' button on her power-point, then took her disk out of the CD drive and left the library, with ten minutes to spare.

--

When Duncan saw her coming down the hall, he smirked. It was typical, something she'd gotten kind of used to it. She figured you could get used to anything, if you were forced to put up with it long enough. He slammed his locker, grinning harder as she went up to him.

"Princess," he said, in a way that meant he was pleased, but surprised she actually _needed_ him for something.

She eyed him for a second. "Are you seriously wearing those piercings? Ms. Terry's going to throw a fit. Possibly faint." A beat. "You want that, don't you?"

"What can I say?" Duncan chuckled. "I'm that kind of guy."

"You're such an ogre, you know? One day you're going to look back at when you were seventeen and wish things had ended up differently-"

Raised eyebrow.

Courtney panicked. "Can you swing my Mr. Henderson's class and drop this off for me?"

"Don't you have him for next period-" She shoved the CD into his hands.

"The bell's gonna go in like, two minutes, I still have to get to my locker. And you have algebra next, right? It's just down the hall, okay?" Then she took off, taking the stairs to the second floor.

The halls were clearing empty. She bit her lip. She needed more _time._

And that's exactly when, right in the middle of her flustering thoughts, she ran into _him._

For awhile they just sat there, fists to the floor, arms stretched out behind them. Then it all suddenly came back to her-where she was, what she'd been doing until…who was sitting right across from her, with a look that might as well kill her.

"G-get out of my way," Courtney said finally, gathering her things quickly and shoving him aside. Just about when he started to say something, she ran.

--

And he went after her, but that was to be expected.

--

"H-harold?" Her lips trembled as she lay there, helpless.

"I'm sorry…....I couldn't save you…..."

Flashes of red drove past, before coming to a halt several metres ahead. The sirens stopped. Life as they knew it stopped.

--

The guy responsible for the crash was arrested immediately. Charged for illegally drinking and driving. Charged for the easiest verdict to say at that time being-murder.

Three hours ago, her biggest worry was submitting a media assignment in late. Now, laying in the middle of the street and not feeling a single bone in her body, Courtney was afraid of the other person, the other person she thought she supposedly hated, dying without hearing the words she'd been trying to run away from, all this time. _I forgive you, Harold._

She needed more _time_.

Why did she decide to tell him, when it was far too late for anything? For the both of them to commit to some sort truce. Maybe they could've even become _friends._

The words and possibilities caught in her throat.

Courtney slowly turned to him. He was dying. They both were. Then she realized they were in stretchers, soon to be taken away from the paramedics. She locked eyes with one of the officers, who had her purse.

"D-duncan," she'd force the words out if it killed her, "T-tell him I….love h-him."

The officer gave her a strange look, but understood she meant her cellphone then went to go get it.

"Courtney…" Harold murmured, trying his hardest to face. "I-"

"S-save it.," she reached over to touch him. "I forgave you a long time ago."

He nodded, then died in his stretcher.

_And I'm the one who should be sorry. _She felt tears welling up in her eyes, but it hurt her to cry. If he was gone, she deserved to be too.

The paramedics rushed to Harold's side, checking his pulse and calling for another ambulance. She felt someone hold her hand during her last few moments, his voice ringing at the back of her head.

"It's going to be okay," Duncan whispered, running his hands through her hair and trying not to freak out at the paramedics.

_No, it's not. _

--

Five years later, he sat in the chief's office for reasons he still couldn't believe himself.

"So tell me, Duncan," the chief huffed on his cigarette, glancing at the papers in disbelief, "After all that bull you've done in the past, you're saying you want to become a _police officer_?"

Duncan chuckled, waiting for a silence before he went on, "Five years ago, my girlfriend told me I should re-think the rest of my life over before it's too late."

He paused, the memory still haunted him, this place. Despite all of the things you could, there were just some things in life you could never get used to.

"…_and look where that brought me."_

_

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_

**Hopefully it turned out okay.**

**I'm supposed to be studying for history, but decided to post this up tonight. R&R :)**


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